Composing like Captain Nemo. Petr Kofroň – interview - Revision history

Diogo at 13:32, 5 April 2019

2019-04-05T13:32:49Z

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Diogo: Text replacement - "Czech Contributions" to "Czech Content"

2019-04-04T15:18:00Z

Text replacement - "Czech Contributions" to "Czech Content"

Diogo at 11:07, 5 June 2018

2018-06-05T11:07:46Z

Diogo at 15:53, 27 March 2018

2018-03-27T15:53:36Z

Diogo at 18:09, 21 March 2018

2018-03-21T18:09:06Z

Diogo at 18:08, 21 March 2018

2018-03-21T18:08:01Z

Diogo at 18:04, 21 March 2018

2018-03-21T18:04:21Z

Diogo: Created page with "Petr Kofroň (*1955), composer, conductor, essayist and one of the founders of the experimental ensemble Agon Orchestra, is an artist who – thanks to his attachment to “po..."

2018-03-21T18:03:49Z

Created page with "Petr Kofroň (*1955), composer, conductor, essayist and one of the founders of the experimental ensemble Agon Orchestra, is an artist who – thanks to his attachment to “po..."

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← Older revision		Revision as of 15:18, 4 April 2019
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	''Translated from Czech by Kinga Szubańska, proofread by Peter Alfredson.''		''Translated from Czech by Kinga Szubańska, proofread by Peter Alfredson.''

−	[[Category: Czech ~~Contributions~~]] [[Category: Interviews]]	+	[[Category: Czech Content]] [[Category: Interviews]]

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 '''Hasn’t it become a part of the order of time already? Wasn’t it organic?'''
 We didn’t use to create any elaborated concerts. I can’t remember well, but I think that there always were some foreign compositions combined with ours. We used to compile the programme with pieces we just liked. I recall that we got really excited about Giacinto Scelsi, who we had heard for the first time in Darmstadt, where we managed to go in 1987. It was cool, because we didn’t have much money for food and drink for example, so anytime when those courses with the Western artists that always kept wallets stuffed with dollars in their back pockets came to an end, we used to go to the toilet and drink the tap water. We used to walk everywhere. In one shop, we were just carefully watching and trying to memorize something and put it together after coming back home.
-Our heroic times lasted until the mid-nineties. In 1996, Mirek founded his own group, Martin started an international career; Ivan Bierhanzl, Mirek Šimáček and I were only ones left. At that time I begun to feel tired of New Music and we moved towards the fusions I’ve mentioned. The biggest flashpoint was a collaboration with Petr Křečan, the founder and the leader of the oddness called Kilhets. In 1979, he emigrated with his girlfriend to West Germany, then he partly returned somewhere to Tachov. We used to go there, but unfortunately Martin Smolka couldn’t stand this because Křečan’s thinking was absolutely destructive. We did one or two performances with him. It was also about our interest in graphic scores, as we believed that they could enrich our musical thinking. It was at a time when we were feeling lost, we were out of ideas, so we chose an absurd starting point, basically. Eventually we tried to bring to life our musical imagination through close cooperation and communication with rock and alternative musicians.
+Our heroic times lasted until the mid-nineties. In 1996, Mirek founded his own group, Martin started an international career; Ivan Bierhanzl, Mirek Šimáček and I were only ones left. At that time I begun to feel tired of New Music and we moved towards the fusions I’ve mentioned. The biggest flashpoint was a collaboration with Petr Křečan, the founder and the leader of the oddness called [[Kilhets]]. In 1979, he emigrated with his girlfriend to West Germany, then he partly returned somewhere to Tachov. We used to go there, but unfortunately Martin Smolka couldn’t stand this because Křečan’s thinking was absolutely destructive. We did one or two performances with him. It was also about our interest in graphic scores, as we believed that they could enrich our musical thinking. It was at a time when we were feeling lost, we were out of ideas, so we chose an absurd starting point, basically. Eventually we tried to bring to life our musical imagination through close cooperation and communication with rock and alternative musicians.
 '''Why have you turned to the link-up with rock bands and artists? Why haven’t you continued and released your collaboration with the radical character from the Czech underground Petr Křečan? Did Kilhets really use to attract your attention?'''

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:53, 27 March 2018
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	''Translated from Czech by Kinga Szubańska, proofread by Peter Alfredson.''		''Translated from Czech by Kinga Szubańska, proofread by Peter Alfredson.''

−	[[Category: Czech Contributions]]	+	[[Category: Czech Contributions]] [[Category: Interviews]]

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-[[File:PetrKofron1-fotKarelSuster.jpg|thumb|Petr Kofroň - Photo by Karel Šuster]
+[[File:PetrKofron1-fotKarelSuster.jpg|thumb|Petr Kofroň - Photo by Karel Šuster]]
 [[Petr Kofroň]] (*1955), composer, conductor, essayist and one of the founders of the experimental ensemble Agon Orchestra, is an artist who – thanks to his attachment to “positive disintegration” – constantly evades any possible way of grasping his variable compositional, organizational, theoretical and literary activity, full of inner laughter and liminal energy. The following is an interview with him conducted by Lukáš Jiřička. This text was originally published in “HIS Voice” no. 2 (2014), which generously granted us permission to republish it.
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 Do you think that Hess’ flight to England made Hitler weaker?
 '''Has it reflected on you?'''
 Personally, I have never been attached to this. I don’t know what others have been thinking, but I have the impression that, for example, Martin Smolka also finished school thanks to a variation on Lennon’s Imagine.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Petr Kofroň]] (*1955), composer, conductor, essayist and one of the founders of the experimental ensemble Agon Orchestra, is an artist who – thanks to his attachment to “positive disintegration” – constantly evades any possible way of grasping his variable compositional, organizational, theoretical and literary activity, full of inner laughter and liminal energy. His relatively small discography includes a mashup of contemporary and underground music, an interpretation of graphic scores, pieces made for the theatre and probably the most twisted form of Czech pop music. In addition to contemporary music compositions and interpretations of other composers on the Agon Orchestra’s albums (Graphic Scores and Concepts, The Red & Black, etc.) and collaboration with underground musicians (The Plastic People of the Universe, Filip Topol), Kofroň’s work also contains two unclassifiable home-mixed and produced achievements that reveal the sarcastic side of the composer, who does what he wants regardless of the connections with the world of classical music and his essential role for Czech opera. In the years 1974–1979, Kofroň studied composition with Alois Piňos at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU), and also received private lessons from Marek Kopelent over the period 1971-1979. Afterwards, except for leading the Agon Orchestra founded together with Martin Smolka and Miroslav Pudlák in 1983, he was the head of the Plzeň Opera between 1996 and 2004. Currently he works as a director of the National Theatre in Prague.
+[[File:PetrKofron1-fotKarelSuster.jpg|thumb|Petr Kofroň - Photo by Karel Šuster]
 '''Lukáš Jiřička: Could you outline the context that you entered in the eighties? What were the possibilities of creating and presenting contemporary music?'''
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 John Cage is, although everybody slobbers over him, a separate historical personality, and although he has been considered a “visionary”, since the fifties his work has been FIRMLY grounded in the poetics of that time. For me, there’s nothing inspiring about him these days.
-Translated from Czech by Kinga Szubańska, proofread by Peter Alfredson. This text was originally published in “HIS Voice” no. 2 (2014), which generously granted us permission to republish it.
+''Translated from Czech by Kinga Szubańska, proofread by Peter Alfredson.''
 [[Category: Czech Contributions]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:04, 21 March 2018
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	Petr Kofroň (*1955), composer, conductor, essayist and one of the founders of the experimental ensemble Agon Orchestra, is an artist who – thanks to his attachment to “positive disintegration” – constantly evades any possible way of grasping his variable compositional, organizational, theoretical and literary activity, full of inner laughter and liminal energy. His relatively small discography includes a mashup of contemporary and underground music, an interpretation of graphic scores, pieces made for the theatre and probably the most twisted form of Czech pop music. In addition to contemporary music compositions and interpretations of other composers on the Agon Orchestra’s albums (Graphic Scores and Concepts, The Red & Black, etc.) and collaboration with underground musicians (The Plastic People of the Universe, Filip Topol), Kofroň’s work also contains two unclassifiable home-mixed and produced achievements that reveal the sarcastic side of the composer, who does what he wants regardless of the connections with the world of classical music and his essential role for Czech opera. In the years 1974–1979, Kofroň studied composition with Alois Piňos at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU), and also received private lessons from Marek Kopelent over the period 1971-1979. Afterwards, except for leading the Agon Orchestra founded together with Martin Smolka and Miroslav Pudlák in 1983, he was the head of the Plzeň Opera between 1996 and 2004. Currently he works as a director of the National Theatre in Prague.	+	[[Petr Kofroň]] (*1955), composer, conductor, essayist and one of the founders of the experimental ensemble Agon Orchestra, is an artist who – thanks to his attachment to “positive disintegration” – constantly evades any possible way of grasping his variable compositional, organizational, theoretical and literary activity, full of inner laughter and liminal energy. His relatively small discography includes a mashup of contemporary and underground music, an interpretation of graphic scores, pieces made for the theatre and probably the most twisted form of Czech pop music. In addition to contemporary music compositions and interpretations of other composers on the Agon Orchestra’s albums (Graphic Scores and Concepts, The Red & Black, etc.) and collaboration with underground musicians (The Plastic People of the Universe, Filip Topol), Kofroň’s work also contains two unclassifiable home-mixed and produced achievements that reveal the sarcastic side of the composer, who does what he wants regardless of the connections with the world of classical music and his essential role for Czech opera. In the years 1974–1979, Kofroň studied composition with Alois Piňos at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU), and also received private lessons from Marek Kopelent over the period 1971-1979. Afterwards, except for leading the Agon Orchestra founded together with Martin Smolka and Miroslav Pudlák in 1983, he was the head of the Plzeň Opera between 1996 and 2004. Currently he works as a director of the National Theatre in Prague.

	'''Lukáš Jiřička: Could you outline the context that you entered in the eighties? What were the possibilities of creating and presenting contemporary music?'''		'''Lukáš Jiřička: Could you outline the context that you entered in the eighties? What were the possibilities of creating and presenting contemporary music?'''